People have practiced various forms of meditation for thousands of years, usually in a religious context. But only recently has meditation been the subject of scientific study. In the latest episode of The Backdrop podcast, Clifford Saron, a neuroscientist at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain who directs the Shamatha Project meditation study, discusses how mindfulness can affect our physical, mental and emotional health.
Sudipta Sen, a professor of history and Middle East/South Asian studies, was recently awarded a Sir Williams Jones Memorial Medal from the Asiatic Society of India for his influential work on the history of South Asia. Sen is a historian of the late Mughal and early British India and the British Empire, and of the environment.
Beth Rose Middleton Manning recalls being elated watching the Eklutna River in Alaska flowing freely after a dam was removed. The UC Davis Department of Native American studies professor had a similar feeling upon learning she received a 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship for her research on dam removal and land restoration. She is one of 28 scholars, journalists and authors awarded the fellowship, which carries a $200,000 stipend.
For the past decade, genetic researchers from the Henn Lab have worked among the Khoe-San and self-identified “Coloured” communities in South Africa, requesting DNA and generating genetic data to help unravel the history and prehistory of southern Africans and their relationship to populations around the world. However, the researchers have been unable to fulfill a common request: providing them their individual genetic ancestry results. What they found is that there is no easy answer.
The multiverse, long a topic of science fiction and fantasy, seems to be popping up in narratives everywhere, notes Maya Phillips, cultural critic for The New York Times. Phillips will explore “Storytelling in the Multiverse of Madness” in a talk on May 5 at 4:10 p.m. at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis — one day before “Dr. Strange” opens in theaters nationwide.
In recent years, self-esteem has fallen out of favor in the scientific literature and in the popular media as an important factor for life outcomes. But a new large research review conducted by psychologists at UC Davis and the University of Bern suggests that high self-esteem can have a positive influence in many areas of people’s lives.
The next time you feel your heart racing and your blood pressure rising, try this: Go outside and gaze at a body of water. Research by a UC Davis psychologist suggests that contemplating water — even if it’s a swimming pool — may be good for psychological well-being.
A 40-foot-tall buckeye — among the first trees to be planted in the UC Davis Arboretum 85 years ago — broke apart. Juan Ávila Hernandez, a member of the Committee to Honor the Patwin and Native Americans, noticed and set in motion a replacement project culminating in a tree-planting ceremony on March 4, 2022. Three saplings will vie to be the buckeye that takes over the spot overlooking the Native American Contemplative Garden.
Puerto Ricans living in Florida, the largest swing state in the country, are mostly supportive of undocumented immigrants, a political attitude that might have broader social and political implications than political candidates and policymakers realize, suggests a UC Davis study.
In the past several years, California has endured the most extreme fires in its recorded history.
2018’s Camp Fire grew into the state’s deadliest and most destructive fire on record, devastating the towns of Paradise and Concow. Last year the state suffered the Dixie Fire, raging for months through five Northern California counties on its way to becoming the single-largest blaze in state history.
Tom Lin, who came to UC Davis in 2019 to study literature, joined Chancellor Gary S. May on this month’s installment of "Face to Face With Chancellor May" to talk about his debut novel, "The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu."
Despite the roles women played in shaping most national park landscapes and uses, few of their stories are shared at the park sites. Now historians from UC Davis have made the stories of women previously missing from these narratives accessible to all for 64 National Park Service sites in the Pacific and Western United States, where the national parks began.
It took decades of fighting for women in the United States to win the right to vote. Today, more women than ever are turning out for elections, running for office and influencing public policy at the ballot box.
But the fight isn’t over, says UC Davis historian Lisa Materson, who studies women’s political history. Some women remain disfranchised. And we are seeing efforts across the nation to make voting harder.
More than $1 million in new awards from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the UC Davis Department of Native American Studies are strengthening Indigenous ancestral languages and contemporary art.
Two faculty members in the College of Letters and Science have been awarded fellowships from the UC Davis Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement to develop new undergraduate courses focused on human rights.